By WAJAHAT ALI
Counterpunch

http://www.counterpunch.org/waj04192008.html

Friday, May 16, 2008, at 8:00 pm
First Baptist Church
909 SW 11th Avenue
Portland, OR
http://www.fbc-portland.org/

Featuring readings by actor Viggo Mortensen; performance poet Staceyann Chin; poet and musician Tevino Brings Plenty; singer Shontina Vernon; Portland student activist Sarah Levy; actor Michael Ealy; teacher, actor, and musician Eric Levine; editor and author Anthony Arnove; and other fine actors and activists.

Voices of a People's History of the United States, edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove, is the long-awaited primary-source companion to Howard Zinn's best-selling A People's History of the United States. It features the words of rebels, dissenters and visionaries from our past -- and present.

The performance is sponsored by the Illahee Lecture Series and is a benefit for Voices of a People's History of the United States, a 501c3 created to encourage civic engagement and to further history education by bringing the rich stories of dissent and activism in the United States to life through public readings.

For more information, contact Illahee:
Box office phone: 503-222-2719
email: info@illahee.org
web: http://www.illahee.org/lectures
Tickets: $20, $10 for students

[PLEASE NOTE: THIS TALK HAS BEEN CANCELLLED]

The noted historian and activist Howard Zinn will give a lecture on “The Meaning of Sacco and Vanzetti”, Monday, May 12, 2008 at 7:30 pm, Dante Alighieri Society Italian Cultural Center, 41 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, MA.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian-born immigrants, workers, and anarchists, who were tried and convicted in 1921 for the armed robbery and murder of two payroll guards. After 7 years of legal appeals and international protest, the two men were finally executed on August 23, 1927 in Boston for a crime that many felt they did not commit and by a judicial system that was patently biased and unjust. In his lecture Howard Zinn will indicate the relevance of the Sacco and Vanzetti Case for America today.

Howard Zinn is a historian, playwright, and social activist. He was a shipyard worker and Air Force bombardier before he went to college under the GI Bill and eventually received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has taught as a tenured professor at Spelman College and Boston University, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna. He has received among others, the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award.

The Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society, the sponsor of this event, seeks to preserve the memory of Sacco and Vanzetti and to honor their efforts in trying to radically change the society they lived in. We wish to bring out their place in the history of radical Massachusetts, to help draw useful connections between the struggle of Sacco and Vanzetti and similar struggles today, and to inform our community about their living legacy, We stand against the death penalty, the persecution of political dissidents, as well as the persecution and scapegoating of immigrants. We hope that by raising a monument to Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston’s North End, a bronze bas-relief by the American sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, the same Borglum noted for his iconic sculptures of four American presidents in the hills of South Dakota, we can keep these issues fresh in the minds of our city, our state, and our nation.

Free admission. Get there early. Discussion and coffee to follow the lecture. Donations for a Sacco Vanzetti Memorial Monument to be placed in Boston’s North End will be gratefully accepted.

The Dante Alighieri Society is conveniently located near Kendall Square, on the corner of Hampshire Street and Cardinal Medeiros Avenue. The Kendall Square / MIT stop on the MBTA Red Line is within ten minutes walking distance from the Center.

Contact: Sergio Reyes
Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society
617-290-5614
info@saccoandvanzetti.org
www.saccoandvanzetti.org

A People's History of American Empire
By Howard Zinn, Paul Buhle, Mike Konopacki

Adapted from the bestselling grassroots history of the United States, the story of America in the world, told in comics form.

http://us.macmillan.com/apeopleshistoryofamericanempire

Since its landmark publication in 1980, A People's History of the United States has had six new editions, sold more than 1.7 million copies, become required classroom reading throughout the country, and been turned into an acclaimed play. More than a successful book, A People's History triggered a revolution in the way history is told, displacing the official versions with their emphasis on great men in high places to chronicle events as they were lived, from the bottom up.

Now Howard Zinn, historian Paul Buhle, and cartoonist Mike Konopacki have collaborated to retell, in vibrant comics form, a most immediate and relevant chapter of A People's History: the centuries-long story of America's actions in the world. Narrated by Zinn, this version opens with the events of 9/11 and then jumps back to explore the cycles of U.S. expansionism from Wounded Knee to Iraq, stopping along the way at World War I, Central America, Vietnam, and the Iranian revolution. The book also follows the story of Zinn, the son of poor Jewish immigrants, from his childhood in the Brooklyn slums to his role as one of America's leading historians.

Shifting from world-shattering events to one family's small revolutions, A People's History of American Empire presents the classic ground-level history of America in a dazzling new form.

"At the heart of this wide-ranging comics indictment of American Empire are the terrific human stories of those who have resisted -- including wonderful autobiographical episodes from author Howard Zinn's own courageous and inspiring life."-Joe Sacco, author of Safe Area Gorazde

See the Boston Globe review:

"No ordinary comic book"
March 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2008/03/27/no_ordinary_comic_book/

And from The Huffington Post:

"Why Are We Always on the Wrong Side? (A Comic Book Offers Answers)"
May 7, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-miller/why-are-we-always-on-the_b_100672.html

Author Biographies:

Howard Zinn, author of numerous acclaimed histories, taught history at Spelman College and Boston University, and has received the Lannan Literary Award, among many others. A People's History of the United States was a finalist for the 1980 National Book Award. He lives in Massachusetts.

Mike Konopacki has collaborated on five collections of cartoons, and his work is regularly syndicated. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Paul Buhle is a senior lecturer in history at Brown University and the editor of the Encyclopedia of the American Left, among other books. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

"Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me About the American Empire"
Tomdispatch.com
April 1, 2008
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174913

"Locura electoral"
La Jornada (Mexico)
March 9, 2008
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2008/03/09/index.php?section=opinion&article=030a1mun

"Election Madness"
The Progressive
March 2008
http://www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0308

After three and a half years touring the country with dramatic readings and special performances from the book Voices of a People's History of the United States, we've launched a new non-profit organization of the same name to carry on the work in a systematic way and to raise funds to bring this inspiring work to every school, town hall, community theater, and public space in the country.

Howard Zinn is on the board of directors of Voices of a People's History of the United States and there's a Teachers Advisory Board of public high school and college teachers to help guide the programs. Other advisory board members include civil rights leader Julian Bond and artists such as writers John Berger and Arundhati Roy, film directors Paul Haggis and John Sayles, actors Mark Ruffalo and Marisa Tomei, and South African poet Dennis Brutus.

Any donation to Voices is tax-deductible and will be matched one to one by a generous donor who has given us our first challenge grant.

We are also looking for in-kind donations and pro bono support in launching our web site and creating an infrastructure for the organization. Laptops anyone? Low-rent office space in New York? Top flight graphic design or web hosting? Let us know!

The goal of Voices of a People's History of the United States is to encourage civic engagement and to further history education by bringing the rich stories of dissent and activism in the United States to life through public readings of primary-source materials -- letters, poems, speeches, songs, courtroom arguments.

Voices seeks to make known the great range of voices from U.S. history, including those of women, African Americans, immigrants, and laborers, and in doing so, to educate contemporary audiences about the role of ordinary citizens in shaping our nation's story. Voices works to remind people of the eloquence of ordinary people, as well as extraordinary and well-known figures from our history.

By involving celebrated actors and public figures in readings, we hope to inspire audiences to delve more deeply into historical texts and also to see history as a lively, relevant, and contemporary subject, not just a matter of books sitting on the library shelf.

But rather than rely on professional actors alone, Voices also arranges for readings combining actors with students and activists to engage at all levels of the dramatic and educational process, from selecting texts, to interpreting them, to adding new voices to the performances.

In doing all of this, Voices hopes to help develop a truly participatory citizenry.

Checks can be made payable to "Voices of a People's History of the United States" or "VPHUS" and sent to:

Voices of a People's History of the United States
130 West 25th Street
Room 12A
New York NY 10001-7472

Inquiries about Voices can be faxed to 212-366-6868, mailed to the address above, or e-mailed to .